By Tim Rohr
"Attorney Edwin Caldie, representing the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, said the Lujan law firm, which led the filing of lawsuits against the archdiocese and priests, played a major role in assisting the first survivors to come forward."
Mr. Caldie can't be faulted for not knowing that this wasn't the case. Caldie only became involved in the matter some years after the "first survivors" came forward, and well after there was a law in place that made it possible for survivors to retain attorneys and sue for damages.
So here's the real story:
When the "first survivors" came forward, namely four - Roy Quintanilla, Walter Denton, Roland Sondia, and Doris Conception in the name of her deceased son, Joseph (Sonny) Quinata - those first four came forward without legal representation.
In May - June 2016, Roy, Walter, and Roland publicly presented what happened to them, but they had no lawyer at the time. True, all three were accompanied at their public presentations by Atty. David Lujan, but Lujan did not represent them, nor did Lujan organize their presentations.
Much of what really happened is already set out in the JW series ORCHESTRATED, but it is important to review so that we keep what really happened in full view.
In May - June of 2016, when Roy, Walter, and Roland came forward and publicly shared what had happened to them as boys, there was no law to protect them and thus nothing a lawyer could do.
Apuron (or more specifically his handlers) knew this, thus the immediate response from Apuron to sue his accusers both civilly and canonically.
We also knew this, which is why we had to work smart. When I say "we," I refer to myself and a few others, who I will call "The Group," and which had become involved in helping these first four after The Group became aware of who they were and what had happened to them.
How The Group came to know these first survivors has already been set out in ORCHESTRATED, but in short it was John Toves who put me (Tim) in touch with Walter Denton and then information from Walter led to Roland and Roy, with Doris surfacing on her own after she heard the news from Guam at her home in Arizona.
At the time, there was no thought of suing Apuron personally or the Church, since there was no way to do that anyway. The only thing these four wanted was to meet with Apuron and share how he had hurt them and perhaps procure an apology or some sign of remorse from their tormentor.
In fact, Roy, Walter, and Roland did not want to go public with their stories at all. They only wanted to meet with Apuron privately.
I will take the "blame" for convincing them to go public. I was so alarmed by the horrific stories from these three men that I figured there had to be more victims, many more - who were probably suffering for decades in the dark as these three had. I suggested to the three that a public revelation of their stories could help many others like themselves. And so they agreed.
The question was how to do this since The Group knew that Apuron would be sure to sue given that at this point (May 2016), Apuron had ousted Fr. Paul Gofigan (2013) and Msgr. James Benavente (2014) and was pretty much stomping on and destroying anyone who stood up to him and his Kiko-backed machine.
Again, see ORCHESTRATED for more in depth detail, but once again, in short, a decision was made to arrange for the three men to publicly present their stories on the street across from the DNA building (I forget why we chose that spot), with each man presenting his story at intervals so there would be three separate presentations. I'll explain why we broke it up like this in a minute.
A decision was also made to "retain" David Lujan to stand next to each of the men and say nothing. And he didn't. Because there was nothing he could say anyway. He was there only for a photo-op. A photo we knew Apuron would see. Note: I put "retain" in quotes because I don't know exactly how Mr. Lujan was recruited.
Again, I must remind the reader that The Group had asked the three men to do something that placed themselves at grave risk of being sued by Apuron. And the only way we could provide some cover for them was to send a message to Apuron that he better think twice. And placing Lujan - one of the best known lawyers in Guam - next to each of these men would "send a message" - we hoped.
In short, it was a bluff, because Lujan had no role but to stand there - as one of The Group liked to put it - like a "cigar store Indian." In fact, even the press fell for the ruse reporting: "Quintanilla was flanked by his attorney David Lujan and others."
The Group was willing to bet that the bluff would work because we had inside intel that Apuron had known for years - especially given all that had been happening in the states regarding the revelation of clergy sex abuse - that one day his chickens would come home to roost, and in fact, had told his then Vicar General, Msgr. David C. Quitugua, to "get ready."
Now, let me address why we brought each of the three men forward separately and the timing of each.
The Group decided to essentially work backwards from Roland Sondia. Roland would be the last to present. And I will share why in a minute.
Walter's story was the most damning because not only had he been raped (per his account), but he had run into Apuron many years later in the states as an adult and had confronted Apuron with what he had done to him - which made for an even more damning story. So we didn't want to play our "Ace" first.
So we went with Roy. Roy had left Guam many years previously and was mostly unknown to anyone in Guam other than his family. But we knew Apuron would know him. And we knew that Apuron, having Roy show up on Guam after 40 years would be the equivalent of Scrooge's "Ghost from Christmas Past."
In other words, we suspected that the sight of Roy on Guam would unnerve Apuron and he would respond erratically. We were right. Apuron fled Guam the next day after leaving a video message attacking Roy.
Roy came forward in mid-May 2016. The Group opted not to bring Walter forward until the first week of June and for a practical reason. FestPac was happening right then and we didn't want our spotlight to be compromised by other news. So we waited.
Walter's story was absolutely damning, as The Group expected it would be, not just because of the horrid details, but because "now there were two." At this point, Apuron surfaced in Rome where he had run to Francis for cover.
As an aside, it was Apuron's fleeing Guam and running to Rome that essentially incriminated him in the eyes of the public in Guam. Had Apuron simply stayed in Guam and calmly addressed the matter with an "I didn't do it and I'm sorry these men think I did," it probably would have been over as quickly as it started. But Apuron incriminated himself by running away, and especially by running to the pope where a Vatican camera caught him trying to get the pope's attention in St. Peter's Square.
Roland's story was the third and final public presentation, and while not as sensational as Walter's, it was the final piece in the credibility question because while Roy and Walter had grown up in Guam (in Agat - thus "The Agat Boys"), both had been absent from Guam for many years and were not familiar names or faces. However, Roland, who had also grown up in Agat, still lived not only in Guam, but still in Agat, and was very well known.
So there were three stories, all corroborating the one story - that Apuron was an altar boy molester - and it was cemented solid by Roland.
Remember now that this all happened in May - June of 2016. The law lifting the civil statute of limitations that would permit lawyers to get involved would not be enacted until September 2016 - at which point Lujan and others would finally "play a major role."
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